HC notice to Punjab on PIL challenging tirth yatra scheme

The petitioner’s counsel, HC Arora, had argued that it is “wastage” of huge amount of tax payers’ money and would not result in any development or welfare

The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought response from the Punjab government on a plea challenging recently launched Mukh Mantri Tirth Yatra Scheme.

The court has asked the state government to explain in an affidavit benefits of the scheme and further asked the government to explain why the scheme has been restarted, when a similar scheme launched in 2017 had been withdrawn by the government.

The high court bench of acting chief justice Ritu Bahri and justice Nidhi Gupta has sought response to the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Hoshiarpur resident, Parvinder Singh Kittna, by December 12. The court, while issuing notice, also asked the state government to apprise the court why the implementation of the scheme should not be stayed, pending plea before it.

The scheme was launched on November 27, which involves running 13 trains during the period of 13 weeks in the current financial year, and each train would accommodate 1,000 devotees, carrying people to religious places across country. Besides, 10 buses have to run every day from various places in the state to different destinations, and each bus will carry 43 passengers. As per the plea, the scheme involves spending of ₹40 crore during the current financial year, over a period of 13 weeks and targets 50,000 persons as beneficiaries in the current financial year.

The petitioner’s counsel, HC Arora, had argued that it is “wastage” of huge amount of tax payers’ money and would not result in any development or welfare. Rather, the scheme is against letter and spirit of the directions issued by the Supreme Court in a judgement titled “Union of India and Others Versus Rafique Shaikh Bhikan and Anr,” it was submitted.

The 2022 judgment, taking notice of the expenditure involved in giving subsidy to various people of the Muslim community for Hajj, directed the Central government to progressively reduce the Hajj subsidy, and to eliminate it within a period of 10 years.

Arora had submitted that the apex court had also observed that the subsidy money may be more profitably used for uplift of the community in education and other indices of social development.

After the hearing, Arora said the court has asked the state government to explain in an affidavit benefits of the scheme and further asked the government to explain why the scheme has been restarted, when a similar scheme launched in 2017 had been withdrawn by the government. The detailed order of Saturday’s proceedings is yet to be released by the high court.